The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

Oh God, don’t let him awaken.

She tried to rise again. This time she succeeded. Slowly, she walked toward the croft door.

A rat shrieked. Sinjun froze in her tracks.

MacDuff stirred, then groaned in his sleep.

She had her fingers clutching the handle. She pressed it down. Nothing happened. She pressed again and shook it.

There was a loud squeaking noise. MacDuff jerked and sat up. “You little bitch,” he screamed at her, and jumped to his feet.

Sinjun had sheer terror in her favor. She jerked open the croft door and plunged into the darkness outside. Thank God for the fetid damp night, deep and fathomless. The ground beneath her feet was suddenly spongy, then wet, the wetness slapping against her slippers, sucking and loud. Her feet suddenly sank into quagmire, the dank muck pulling at her skirts, weighing her down. Smells were all around her, awful smells and strange sounds from creatures she would rather not see.

He was right behind her, yelling, “You damned bitch! You’ll die in the swamp! I told you it was unlikely I would kill you! Come back here, all I want is the money and you’ll be free! Surely even you don’t think I could get away with murdering both you and Colin and perhaps your brothers, as well! Don’t be stupid, get back here!”

Oh no, she thought, oh no. He sounded close, knocking against branches behind her. She turned, panicked, and ran into a tree. She nearly knocked herself out. She stood there, trying to get her bearings again, hugging that damned tree. It was bent forward toward the still, thick water and its trunk felt slimy. She felt herself being drawn deeper into the thick mud. She clutched the trunk, trying to pull herself free. It didn’t work. She was sinking, the filthy slime nearly to her knees now. Her great plan, all for naught. Either she would sink here in this swamp or MacDuff would kill her. Why didn’t he sink like a stone? He weighed three times what she did, why the devil didn’t he sink?

“Jesus, you stupid bitch, I should leave you here to be sucked under.”

MacDuff hauled her free of the muck and without hesitation threw her over his shoulder. “Any more trouble from you and I’ll strike you again.”

She was breathing hard, her face hitting his shoulder. She wanted to be sick but she had no intention of succumbing. She swallowed hard. She had to do something. She’d wanted only to run away from him. Damnation, all for naught.

Then, quite suddenly, she was flying off MacDuff’s back, striking the ground and rolling onto her stomach. She heard Colin’s voice and it was cold and furious. “All right, you damned bastard, it’s all over.”

Sinjun turned over quickly. She saw Colin holding a pistol on MacDuff. Thank God he hadn’t tried to fight him. MacDuff would have broken him in half. Then there were her two brothers and Sophie and Alex, all of them there in a half circle, watching, silent as stones. All of them holding pistols.

Colin dropped to his knees and gathered her up. “Sinjun, are you all right?”

She stared up at her husband. “What did you call me?”

“I asked you if you were all right, damn you. You’re filthier than a Loch Ard goat.”

“Yes, certainly. Colin, you called me Sinjun.”

“It was a slip of the tongue, done in my excitement. Now, MacDuff, we will all go to that dismal little croft and I want some answers from you.”

“Go to the devil, you filthy devil’s spawn! How did you manage this? Damn you, I saw you riding Gulliver to Edinburgh and coming back to Vere Castle. I saw you! It isn’t possible that you knew I was there!”

Douglas spoke for the first time. “It was me you saw. As for discovering your hidey-hole, we had a dozen or so lads stationed all about the perimeter on the lookout. Jamie spotted you. It was quite easy after that.”

MacDuff just stared at Douglas. Then he turned back to Colin. “I wouldn’t have killed either you or Sinjun. I just wanted to leave. My father left me little money, Colin. You could afford fifty thousand pounds since you married her. I just wanted a little bit of her fortune. It was all Aunt Arleth’s fault.”

“You killed her,” Colin said, his voice shaking with fury, with betrayal. “God, I trusted you. All my life I trusted you, believed you were my friend.”

“Yes, was. Only, things change. We became men.” He looked down at his feet, then, with a fierce cry, he rushed at Colin, grabbed his gun arm, jerking it upward, and crushed his cousin to him, his massive arms tightening around his back, cracking his ribs.

Sinjun was on her feet in an instant. She froze in midstride. The gun went off.

Sinjun screamed.

Slowly, so very slowly, Colin pushed free of MacDuff. He crumpled to the ground. He didn’t move.

There was utter silence. The night sounds became louder. Sinjun fancied she heard one of the rats shriek.

“He knew he couldn’t get away from all of us,” Douglas said slowly, looking at the pistol he held in his own hand. “He saw that Ryder and I were armed.”

“We were, as well,” Alex said.